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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Keeper! You've just GOT to read this one., August 4, 2005
This review is from: Mute (Paperback)
I finished reading 'Mute' four days ago, and have since started another. Yet I still can't get it out of my mind. Maybe it's because I simply don't want to.
A few things make this book so good:
1) Thematic elements that are current and unique. Mad cow, tsunamis, and terrorism are top of mind, and this story puts a new spin on all of them. There's another even hotter topic I won't mention that's key to the story - but it's a surprise!
2) Characters. I have family in parts of Scotland, and Dr. Duncan Henderson is a true-to-form Glaswegian. Kat Francis and Zaina Marikar are drawn with such realism you could touch them. They sure touched ME.
3) Suspense. This book frayed my nerves to tatters - and I clamped on to it tight. I'd finally put it down, and then pick it back up half a minute later.
4) I learned a lot about prion diseases, Islam, and geography among many other things, and it didn't hurt a bit. This author has a gift for imparting solid info without compromising the action.
5) Brilliant ending. No loose ends. I was shocked right out of my socks, yet oh, so satisfied. How often does that happen?
Brad Steel, you rocked my world. Hit me again, baby!
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good fiction, and good fact as well...., September 22, 2005
This review is from: Mute (Paperback)
I visited this page three times before breaking down and buying the book.... and I am glad I did. It's the first novel I have read since I finished up "The Da Vinci Code" almost a year ago. I enjoyed that particular story, but did not appreciate the way Dan Brown made up his own facts as he went along. It insulted what a lot of people believe in, myself included.
"Mute" is similar only in that it presents a huge amount of information as an intriguing story speeds along. The difference is that this time the facts are real. Most reviewers have written on and on about how good the dialogue and characters are, and I don't disagree.
What nobody has said a lot about is how much of "Mute" is true.
I am out of the business now, but I spent 23 years in the cattle industry and I can now speak my mind. I have believed for some time that there was a link between the cattle mutilations that happen regularly and government surveillance of diseases like mad cow and chronic wasting disease. "Mute" is fiction in story, but what is said about this linkage is true. I will swear it on my deathbed. The way Brad Steel describes mutilated cows is EXACTLY what I have seen, on my own ranch and others. People think it's just a bunch of hoaxes like crop circles, but nobody I know would do stuff like that to his own animals. It makes you sick to see it happen. Even if a rancher had some crazy reason to, he would not have the technology to do the things I have seen.
So go ahead and buy, and do enjoy a story well told. Enjoy the characters, and have fun being surprised again and again.
All I'm saying is do not comfort yourself by thinking it's all not true....
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An astonishing read - the best I've seen in years, March 25, 2005
This review is from: Mute (Paperback)
It doesn't take me long to burn through a book, and I don't waste much time on ones that aren't any good. I bought Mute four days ago on a business trip after I spotted legal thriller ace John Lescroart's praise on the front cover, and scanned the flap copy. It sounded compelling and original. I cracked it open on the plane that night, and finished my second full read of it by lunchtime today. Brad Steel is, as Lescroart's words suggest, a master of voice. It appears this is Steel's first novel - I can't find any other titles - yet he has a clipped, no-nonsense style that kicks the guts out of veterans like Tom Clancy. (Especially Clancy's recent books: The Teeth of the Tiger could have benefited immensely from TC having a tete-a-tete with Mr. Steel!) Much of Mute is narrated by Steel's protagonist, a young woman named Kat Francis. Now, I understand women quite well - but I'll admit not as well as Steel does. More than once, I caught myself glancing at the author photo. If not for the stylistic harmony with the rest of the book, I would SWEAR Kat's character to be the creation of a female writer. It's just that solid. I challenge anyone to guess where this storyline is going from one chapter to the next, especially nearing the end. It won't darned well happen. In popular fiction, I can almost always anticipate the ending, and can all too regularly predict many impending plot devices as well. I'm tempted to tell you about a few of the curveballs Steel throws, but I won't. Pick it up, and see for yourself. If you find yourself disappointed, perhaps you ought to give up reading fiction for a while. And if you don't learn a few new and worthwhile things from this, quit reading entirely. You must know too much! This is one hell of a good book. Write on, Mr. Steel...
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